Posted by dr. dave on September 12, 2002, at 3:51:15
In reply to Re:Lexapro marketing (for everyone), posted by moxy1000 on September 11, 2002, at 16:46:23
Isomer science has been known about for a lot, lot longer than that, and Sanchez published a paper demonstrating
s-citalopram was the active isomer of citalopram in 1992. It seems that the s-isomer was patented in the US in 1990, according to this article.http://www.current-drugs.com/CDD/CDD/CDDPDF/NEWS_ANTIDEPRESSANT_HEIR.pdf
What has happened recently is that new technology has allowed separation of stereoisomers to become financially viable - a fantastic thing in general, but of debatable benefit in the case of citalopram.
> I think that's incorrect. Isomer science was only developed in 1998 - the guy that figured out how to single out one isomer of a racemic mixture actually won the noble prize for chemistry that year. Forest started looking into developing Celexa into an isomer at that point - and just recently was Lexapro ready for approval. To say they knew about it all along is in part true - they knew there was potential in developing Celexa into a single isomer. But, they couldn't do it overnight - it took almost five years to get the R&D done and get the drug to market.
>
> Also, the difference b/w lexapro and celexa is not quite as simple as was stated. If Lexapro were truly HALF of Celexa, then to carry that theory forward, 10mg of Lexapro would be equal to 20mg of Celexa. That's not the case - 10mg Lex = 40mg Celexa.
>
> And also, there will be no generic versions of Celexa until probably 2005, so this wasn't released due to a patent emergency.
poster:dr. dave
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020906/msgs/119608.html